Tag Archives: Fatherhood

Seth and Aiden, I hope one day you stumble upon this and read it, and realize that what you are going through is not your fault. You were always both good kids, and you are both growing into strong and intelligent young men with good hearts, and I am very proud of you. Your sister Haley misses you both very much, and she hopes very much that she can be reunited with you one day.

As for me, I am broken. I can’t fight anymore. You have both been on my mind and in my heart every single day. While I cherish my memories of you, missing you has been almost unbearable. My grief and longing for my sons has consumed me, every single day. I can’t go on like this anymore. I have to try to put it away and focus on other things. I have to learn how to accept that you are gone, and get back to living my life. My door and my heart will always be open to both of you. Please believe that I don’t blame you for any of this, and I’m so sorry for what you’ve had to go through. I am also sorry for the mistakes I have made along the way, and I hope you can find peace and healing from the hurts I have caused by failing you.

Remember to be kind and forgiving to each other. The turmoil, strife, and distance between you two is not because of who you are, but because you have been played against each other. Don’t let the fact that you are treated differently drive a wedge between you. You are brothers, and you are both my sons, no matter what. I love you both – yesterday, today, and always.

With love from your father,

Walter Singleton

PS: Should you ever decide to see me, I will be in Orlando, like always, and not hard to find. You can look me up on the Orange County Clerk website, https://myeclerk.myorangeclerk.com/Cases/Search , and find the name of my lawyer, who can put you in contact with me. Also, if you ever find yourselves in trouble, please seek me out. My door will always be open to you, and I will do whatever I can to help you.

I wanted to post something a little different today. Most of my posts are about what has happened in the past, or what I hope for in the future. But for this post I just want to take the opportunity to appreciate a small moment that happened yesterday, a moment I wouldn’t have had if I didn’t have custody of my daughter.

Haley went on a school field trip yesterday. It was a long trip up to Georgia with the FFA to an Agricultural Fair. I had to drop her off early in the morning, and she didn’t return until 8PM that night. It was a fairly large group going, with three charter buses taking students from several different schools. When I arrived to pick her up, it was dark. The parking lot was full of cars, some with parents still in them, while other parents had chosen to get out of their cars and stand around the parking lot to wait.

But I’m not your typical parent. When the buses arrived, I got up in the bed of my pickup truck. As soon as the kids got off the bus, I hit the panic alarm. So there I am, horn honking, lights flashing, standing up in the bed of the truck, grinning and waving my arms like a maniac. Needless to say, Haley spotted me immediately. She sprinted to me, laughing like crazy.

That’s the kind of moment that makes me happy to be a father. That’s the kind of moment that helps me keep it together, when all week long I’ve wanted to fall apart.